will work perfectly. hello,obamacare. well, it doesn't work any better when they try to mess with our friendships and reward our nemies and hurt our friends. so, in the few minutes that are remaining, madam speaker, i'd like to reference back to "the new york times" article by barry james, october 21, 1994, during the clintonned administration. there was skepticism about the u.s.-north cry agreement -- north korea agreement said it could delay inspections. some politicians in south korea criticized the accord said they were afraid they bought secrecy and reprocessed enough

plutonium. the energy agency says it needs to inspect two nuclear waste dumps to be able to answer the question. north korea has never conceded the existence of the dumps. it would be the interest of all concerned that a long delay. but we are better with the agreement than with none at all. we have to worry about how much they have put away. blixt says hinks -- we need to look at the two facilities. under the agreement that the clinton administration reached, north korea agreed to place in storage fuel removed last spring rom a five megawatt graphite reactor. u.s. republican senators pro tested in a letter to president

bill clinton that this reversed long-standing u.s. policy because it allowed the north koreans to hang onto the spent fuel rods and would delay for several years the inspection of suspect sites. the accord shows it is always possible to get an agreement when you give enough away said senator dole. the deal has been criticized in south korea. for ee it as a crime pyongyang for them to dispel doubts. the pakistan which will be signed will provide north korea with an interim supply of fuel to overcome its energy shortage d 2,000 megawatt light water reactors. north korea will abandon its facilities and renounce any plans to build nuclear weapons.

gee, doesn't that sound familiar. this administration is repeating the same mistakes of madeline albright and bill clinton as president. iran cannot be trusted, that has lied repeatedly, just like north korea did. and how did the clinton deal work out? yeah, they took the nuclear facilities we provided them, but they didn't stand good behind their promise not to develop nuclear weapons. they developed them and we helped them. and now this administration wants to do the same thing with iran. we're still paying for the mistakes of the clinton administration with north korea helping them get more nuclear power and now this administration wants to do that with iran. that's a huge mistake. we need to help our friend israel. stop betraying them. help our friends. stop rewarding our enemies,

because the consequences to this nation will be dire if we don't turn this around. madam speaker, it is my prayer, it is my hope that this administration will turn from its stupid ways the arrogance that existed before obamacare kicked in, surely should have come down a notch so they can realize maybe we are making a istake in dealing with blood thirsty people in iran as well. this country's future is at stake. this ought to be enough to make this administration slow down and realize they are about to make another huge mistake that we will pay for for generations if they don't stop. iran will certainly not stop just as north korea did not.

they have gotten help from north korea. they learned a lesson from north korea. it's time this administration learned a lesson from our mistake and the mistake from the clinton administration and madeleine albright. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2013, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. speier for 30 minutes. ms. speier: everyone has heard about the price is right, but on c-span tonight, we're going to play the price is wrong. but before doing so, i want to put this in perspective. a number of years ago, we were all aghast as taxpayers when we found out that in the department of defense, we were spending 436 on a hammer. urn.ent $7,600 on a coffee

and we spent $640 on a toilet seat. talk about flushing money down a toilet. we were doing it. but that's fleecing that we thought had ended, has actually continued. since 2010, the inspector general of the department of defense has found that we are spending more than $430 million over what we should be paying for spare parts, thousands of spare parts. so we're paying much more than the fair or reasonable price for these parts. now, what the military should do when it needs parts is go to what's called the defense logistics agency, d.l.a. it's like the defense hardware

store. but sometimes they think it's cheaper and maybe faster if they go to a defense contractor and ask for those parts. well, the audits also showed that certain parts we have in such volume that it will last us 100 years. that's like having spare parts like, let's say horseshoes dating back to world war i and sitting around the defense hardware store today, more than 100 years worth of certain spare parts. you would say maybe this is a complicated. it's not complicated. the auditors go to the department of defense data bases and can tell immediately with just a click whether or not the spare parts are in stock and how much they will be charged for those spare parts. so let's play our very first

game of "the price is wrong." this is a roller assembly. it's about the size of a quarter. now this particular assembly in the defense hardware store. so the auditors suggested, well, maybe because this is in fact for a chinook helicopter, maybe it could be even a little bit more. but what did the personnel within the department of defense pay for this little assembly. it wasn't $7.71. $77.10?erhaps nope. t wasn't $77.10.

was it $771? nope. it wasn't $771. , $1 id for this $7.71 part ,678.61. now, the price is wrong and the department of defense has got to clean up its act. let's move on to yet another game that we can play. it's called "that's too much." now i'm going to show you another part. this is a bearing sleeve. and you are going to tell me whether or not you think the price is too much. again, at the local hardware store, this would sell for $6. again, this is for a chinook helicopter and the inspector general says maybe for this

sophisticated helicopter, it would cost $10. id we pay $86? nope. you didn't pay $86. did we pay $286? nope, we didn't pay $286. ,286 for this little part. now, we just didn't buy one part, we bought 573 of these parts, this little bearing leeve, and it cost us $1.3 million. all right. if you haven't enjoyed playing this game so far. we have one more game to play tonight. and this game is the finale. it's called the "showcase

showdown." and this is when we compare two packages and see which one cost more. so our first item here is the gate roller mp assembly. now, which is more expensive this two-part roller assembly or trip to paris, france, for two, including air fare and hotel for four nights? which is more expensive? the trip to guessed paris, france, you'd be wrong, because a trip to paris, france, if you go on one of the local $2,681. , would cost and we paid or i should say the this aid $3,357 for

two-ramp gate roller assembly. so, the pentagon is playing games with taxpayer dollars. and let me tell you this is just the tip of the iceberg. worst part of this game is that it's rigged. the contractors always win and the taxpayers always lose. the inspector general found that the army overpaid one defense contractor $13 million, but the pentagon only recovered $2.6 million. now get this. it's discovered that one defense contractor overcharged us $13 million for a number of parts. and then after it was exposed, they didn't even refund us what

they should have. they only paid us back $2.6 million. included paying twice the price, $16,000 for a structural support that should have cost $1,300. this bearing sleeve that i just showed you that was over $2,200. let's put it in simple terms. if we went into a local cafe and ordered the blue light special and the menu said it was $2,200, we'd walk right out and they would be laughed out of our community. but, no, that doesn't happen in the military. that defense contractor that overcharged us and then didn't even pay us back what they had overcharged us, get this. the air force has just signed on

the dotted line a contract with this defense contractor to do the following, to manage the supply chain. now, it's almost laughable that the defense contractor that ripped us off now has another contract to manage the supply chain. well, that's all the games we have for tonight. thank you for playing. we'll see you next time on "the price is wrong." . i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. does the gentlewoman have a motion? ms. speier: i would like to move that we adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until

>> you love to write. we have two early examples here

from when she was about 10 years old. she enteredof 1950, writing contest. question three of the essay, people in history you wished you had known down the first two she mentions are charles baudelaire and oscar wilde. washe early 1950's she hired as the inquiring camera girl for the times herald. it is somewhat prophetic because she interviews vice president and john f. kennedy. in her later life, she was a very prolific editor of books in new york city working with several different authors on

book so several different topics. >> watch our program on first lady jacqueline kennedy or see it this weekend at a special time saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern and sunday on noon. the series continues as we look at first lady lady bird johnson. >> the obama administration announced wednesday that within beenirst month sign-up has available, more than 100,000 people have been enrolled for the state and federal marketplaces while another 846,000 completed applications. statistics released by hhs also shows that 1.5 million applied for insurance with more than one million being eligible for coverage. sebelius spoke with reporters in a conference call. >> thank you. i want to start by thanking

those who you will hear from in a minute and they would be happy to answer more of your questions . today, we're releasing a report octoberollment data for 1 through november 2. the numbers tell two very clear stories. in every part of our country, americans are very interested in affordable health coverage being offered through the marketplace and medicaid. even with the issues we have had come in marketplace is working and people are enrolling over the phone, on paper, and online. as of this first time, 106,000 americans have enrolled in qualified health plans through and 396,000ace learned they may be eligible for medicaid or chip. 975 thousand customers have made it through the process of applying and getting an eligibility

determination and/or currently still shopping for a plan. is working.ace people are enrolling. i can't tell you that rarely a day goes by when i don't meet someone who have gone two, 3, 4 years without insurance. they say how waitress they are to get covered. maybe they are living paycheck to paycheck or they are locked out the cause of a pre-existing health condition. we see their interest reflected in the number of people shopping for plants. state sitesov and have received millions of unique visitors and call centers have received 3.1 million calls. expect thatnably these numbers will grow substantially over the next five months as they did in massachusetts which enrolled month.3% in his first

we know from experience in the baystate that people tend to research and consider their options before making a purchase. this data represents only one month into a sustained six-month enrollment and outreach effort. we are confident as more people learn about these options that more will find a plan that meets their needs and their budget and more will enroll in coverage. as we continue this outreach effort and as we make continuous improvements to health care.gov, we have every reason to expect more people to enroll. as of this first time, more than one point 5 million americans applied for coverage submitting applications,000 for themselves and members of their families. 98% of those who have applied through federal and state approximately one point four 8 million people, have received an eligibility determination.

they learned whether they are eligible for the marketplace or whether they qualify for lower costs or whether they are eligible for medicaid or chip. almost one third of these consumers have already signed up for a plan nor are eligible for medicaid or chip. as more people shopping on talk things over, we expect these numbers to rise. at the end of the day, the promise of quality, affordable coverage is increasingly becoming a reality for more and more americans. a 24-year-was with old woman in austin texas. she recently started a new job and while her employer did not offer health insurance, they offered to subsidize purchases on the individual market. unfortunately, the plan she found rail between $500-$700 and even with help it was more than she could afford but once the marketplace opens, she was able to enroll in coverage for $140 a month.

with the help she is receiving from her employer, her monthly auto pocket premium you'll only be about $70 a month. create moremined to success stories and we are committed to pushing forward so we can do just that. i will turn the call over to julie now. >> thank you. we expect the numbers to grow over time not only as we continue to make fixes but also as we continue the aggressive outreach and education efforts. we are working 24-sevens make improvements to the website and we are making progress so that by the end of the month the site will be working smoothly for the vast majority of users. this means that by the end of november, users will be able to move faster through the system, see fewer error messages, experience last time out and be

able to complete their application and enrollment in one sitting if they choose to do so. as of today, the air or rate is down to less than 1%. as with any web project, this is a dynamic online environment and a process that will be ongoing and we will continually make andncements, add features, deliver new content to best respond to ongoing consumer demand and ensure the best possible consumer experience. >> republican representative dave camp, the chairman of the ways and means committee, responded to the administration's announcement saying the enrollment numbers are inflated to improve those who are just shopping a freight plan adding that if it was inaccurate the editor that they would need to enroll 68,000 people per day to meet the year end goal. thatico is reporting tensions are escalating between congressional democrats and the white house.

it says democrats are on the verge of abandoning president obama on vital elements. they have given their assent to sign onto efforts to adjust the healthcare law. several bills are being considered on and off the house and senate floors and we spoke with a reporter about this. >> health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius announcing the number of people according to the healthcare law in the figure released earlier this afternoon. thed drucker is from washington examiner joining us from capitol hill. 6,185 sign up in the first

month. is that a good or bad thing? >> it's not good from the perspective that they need millions and millions of americans and the exchanges in order to subsidize the expanded coverage that the law mandates. it cane perspective that only go up from here presumably, we could look back on this as a to be remedied once people become more comfortable with the law. >> the hearings have tended to focus on the launch of the website. the legislative action, the arena is turning to letting people stay or remain on their healthcare plans and not have to change them over. what's coming up in the house later this week opposed by fred upton of michigan? >> on friday, the house will

vote on a bill to allow them to content. companiesve insurance who have been transitioning to the new obamacare regulatory demands that they upgrade the coverage in the understand it is for minimum coverage. and have been transitioning phasing out the old plan. the upton bill would allow insurance companies to continue to offer these plans for another year. it would not mandate that they do so and there is nothing in the bill that really helps people because the plans have already been canceled. what house republicans are trying to answer concerns from their constituents is that they have a lot of stories from voters who are worried that they are losing their plans, prices are going up. they will not be able to see the doctors that they like. senator mary,

landrieu, her bill goes further. it would expand the obamacare grandfathering clause indefinitely enforce companies to continue to offer plans that unless theye now want to exit the insurance market altogether and there is no indication yet that democrats want to give this thing a vote because the danger there is that , fiscally, this could undermine how obamacare finances all of the expanded coverage and the pre-existing conditions where you cannot push people out of insurance yet you cannot have a lifetime cap and things of that nature. you need all of these people in the new exchange in order to finance that and i think that's why a lot of democrats are nervous. that's what we're going to see at least in the house the side and where the debate is on the senate. >> harry reid saying that they

would meet with white house officials on thursday. what's expected to come out of that meeting? >> it's unclear. senator reid did not want to talk about healthcare in his weekly conference. he was very candid about it saying he would not answer any questions beyond the fact that the meeting is scheduled. we know on both sides of capitol hill that democrats were very concerned. they are concerned about the website, but the issue on the canceled plans and the fear among americans is that the plans have not been canceled and maybe they will be affect did and this seems to have lit a switch under democrats in terms of their concern about the politics of this at least in the short term. they want to do something. they want to show the public that they are doing something. so far, they are not satisfied with the administration's response to this. i think what tomorrow's meeting is about with the administration

is to say where are you with the website? what does the president want to do about the fact that he broke his promise about the canceled plans? mary landrieu said the promise was made and broken and that's why she proposed her bill. not only what are you going to do but when are you going to do it? how long do we have to take this ?eating politically >> david drucker from the washington examiner. follow him on twitter and read his reporting at the washington examiner's website. david, thanks for being with us. >> this hearing is where the white house chief technology the health care.gov website is capable of handling up to 25,000 users at one time. todd park testified here before the house oversight committee

along with officials from the health and human services department and the centers for medicaid and medicare services. this hearing on the status of the rollout from the healthcare website is a little more than four hours.

>> the committee will come to

order. we have two rants. he the money the government takes involuntarily from them is both been. second, americans to serve an efficient government that works for them. is toty on this committee in fact protect these rights. our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers because they have a money government takes from them is well spent. tirelesslyb to work in partnership with citizen watchdogs to deliver the facts and bring general reform to the bureaucracy. agohree and a half years have partisan vote, they affordability care rocked.

it gave them three years to implement, unlimited money, and ensure they neither need to come back to congress ever again. rules.ated their own the 2400 pages were passed into tensnd they now represent of thousands of pages of regulation that were created based on how this administration wanted a law interpreted. legislation created in latel being written september. , healthded a website

care.gov. these were supposed to make it online have an marketplace. it was in fact an attempt to duplicate what hundreds, perhaps thousands, of insurance , do well every day. they said it would be as easy as oring a ticket on kayak buying a television on amazon. this is an insult. the day of the launch, president obama should have known the harsh would stem we have all learned from the time -- the harsh wisdom they were not ready. they were not close to ready. monumental escape to

go live and effectively explode on the launchpad. for american people, obamacare is no longer a distraction. it's about losing insurance the president promised you could keep. many americans it's about premiums going up. your promised they would go down by $2500. business lobby dan received a waiver by the taxpayer, the citizen, the only real recipient did not. -- viduals

penalty is still in effect and even if new exchanges do not function. the penalty is, in effect, even if you plan on keeping the healthcare you wanted and discovered it is now gone. discover thatt to you cannot afford or cannot the healthcare. this is to examine the failures in i.t.should have been success story. nearly $600 million, three-and- , larger than kayak

ever dreamed of having to set up their website. larger than ebay spent in the first many years of a much more complex site that auctions in real time millions and millions of products per year. we are here to examine the failure of technology, not because it was so new and innovative, not because this was a boom shot. not because we need a lockheed martin and rockwell to come and invent some new way to propel it but becausehe moon, we have discovered and we will undoubtedly discover that efforts were taken to cut corners to meet political deadlines at the end and that for political reasons, rules were not created in a timely fashion. in fact, the rules it should have been created at the time of the passage of the law or shortly thereafter, in many cases, were still being given to

programmers in september of this year. recognize that there are divisions on this committee, as there were when obamacare became law. many members including myself and is ahat there was healthcare crisis in america, a crisis of affordability. insurance is simply a way to score with that affordability is, not drive down costs. many members including myself oppose the new law because they thought it would not work and it had no systems to actually reduce the cost of healthcare from the provider. my friends on the other side may ,orrectly note, as i will hear that many americans are at theing from obamacare cost of trillions of dollars over a 10-year time, i certainly hope so but divisions over

whether or not taxpayer money taken and pushed back out to those who are trying to afford health care is not the subject today. the firstely, during two years of the obamacare law under speaker pelosi, there was no effective oversight. oversight was shut down during the first two years of the obama administration. the minority pointing out anything was ignored. under my chairmanship, we have tried to correct that but we have been disappointed by continued obstruction by the minority on this committee defending the administration even when it has failed to deliver the relevant documents and they find themselves objecting to hearings, witness and constantly engaging in petty downplaying of what in fact is a serious problem. the minority today will undoubtedly point out that this

must be political. because onlyre 1100 people at a time to get onto a website before it crashed effectively, when 250,000 needed to get on it because it was the law and mandated. reason,ot here for that the minority will say. we are here because this is political. this committee on a bipartisan basis has offered legislation that if the senate had taken it off and the president had supported and signed it and it had been implemented in this of the, undoubtedly many mistakes made, we would find they would not be made. in fact, the lack of budget authority for a single point on a project of this sort conducted and overseen by somebody who had a success story in similar operations rising to the level of a $600 million multi-

committee, multi-state website if that person had been there and been in charge, i have no doubt that person would not be with us today because that site would be up and running. on october 10, i joined with senator lamar alexander, a member of the minority in the senate it finds himself unable to get answers, asking secretary sebelius to provide documents related to health care.gov. obamacare, i was forced to issue a subpoena because of a lack of response from the administration. date, hhs is not produced a single responsive documents of this committee. contrast, the committee has received far more cooperation, transparency, and document production receiving over 100,000 relevant documents from the are from contractors working

on this project, the very contractors who were blamed on their fault, being not a single political appointee's fault, not obama's fault. know the ranking member and i could fill an entire hearing with discussions about our differences and i have no doubt in short order he will air many of them. but for this hearing, i think we can find agreement. the agreement would be simple. whether you like obamacare or not, taxpayer dollars were wasted, precious time was wasted, the american people's , in fact, obamacare does not exist today in a meaningful way because best established from the government were not used in this case. now, our government must quickly grasp the lessons of what

happened here in obamacare's health care.gov project a better and more effectively implement underlying policy changes so that this won't happen again. investigations this committee received testimony and documents indicating many problems that led to this disastrous failure to launch on october 1. the committee has learned that androus missed deadlines ignoring of integrated security testing requirements are still a problem for the system. gave to me,member and i will put in the record, a letter very concerned that some of the documents we received from contract others, if they got in public hands, would be a the security flaws that exist in obamacare's website today.

it is our committee's decision that those documents will not be released. thatll carefully ensure any material given to us by anyone that would help hackers discover more quickly the flaws in obamacare's website are not made public but let's understand the ranking member's statement in that letter says more than i could say. thethat is, on the day of launch and even today, there are material failures in the security of the obamacare website meaning, even though we may not put out the roadmap, hackers, if they can get on a website that only accommodates 1100 people at a time, they may have already or may soon find those vulnerabilities. they may soon find your social security number or your sensitive information because there was no integrated security testing before the launch.

they pointed this out in time for the launch to not have occurred on till security concerns were properly vetted. security test conducted by the records we have been given, given by contractors because the administration has failed to be in any way onto store transparent and producing documents, showed that in mid- september, at least as to the federal marketplace segment of the site emma they identified significant findings of risk, documents from a contractor chaotic testing environment. chow, theto mr. henry top operational officer for the marketplace administration alays issuing regulations in compressed timeframe for building the i.t. infrastructure. we know that hhs did not issue

any regulations in the three --ths dryer to november 2012 prior to november 2012. seems sad you pass a law in the first few months of an administration and yet it seems regulations came to a halt so that they would not be out there in the marketplace during the president's reelection. two years is too long after ray law but has a mandate to before you go and tell the american people and the website producers what they must do. this committee has learned that a complete integrated security meaningdid not occur testing the pieces but do not test the entire product. that was one of the faults of the launch. it heightens the risk of unauthorized access, non- encrypted data, and the loss of personal identifiable

information. this is not the committee's opinion but testimony. he was not even aware of some of the testing results that showed serious security problems in the weeks before the october 1 up date. he justified the result should have been shared with him and said the situation was disturbing. hhs offered no further for nearly two weeks until after the committee made a redacted version of the key memo public. week, the cmslast chief information officer told investigators that he normally signs the authority to operate memos to launch cms i.t. projects and in this case, , he determined that he

would not sign the health care required a less qualified and obviously erroneous signature to occur on that document. upstairsicking it because you know it isn't any good. although i appreciate the cio not signing a document for a site that was not ready, at the same time, we must realize that there should have been public objection to her signing that document for a website that clearly was not ready for prime time. additionally, today, we're hearing from a distinguished panel of witnesses and i recognize that some of the witnesses, particularly mr. park, are busy elsewhere trying to get this side operational. but since we have been in a

neighborhood of six weeks since the launch, i trust that hundreds, or if necessary, thousands of the right people have most of their marching orders and that it's time for ofgress on any committee jurisdiction to look over the shoulder of the administration to ask you both what went wrong and, today, not just ask if you promise on november 30 to make it right but vill you in fact commit to the changes in law that would ensure this does not happen again? i don't hold this committee i.t.ng today to sell reform. this committee has already done its job to sell i.t. reform. however, it is essential that you understand that when mr. cummings and i make public

billions of dollars of failed i.t. programs, the american people often get a small snippet in the newspapers. today, i think the american people should know this is not the $600 million unique event. if it were, this would be a different hearing. this is part of a pattern that occurs due to failure to adhere to the private sector's world- class standards for web production. this is a pattern that includes political appointees being more involved than career professionals. this is a pattern that has to stop. our witnesses today, among them will be mr. dave hower, a government accountability in whatand an expert those practices should have been 'sd what failed on health care website. he is a career professional, nonpartisan, and an individual who does not work for me, does

not work for the ranking member, but works for the american people. i will do the rest of my introduction when the time comes. i now yield to the ranking member. you, mr. chairman. good morning to everyone and welcome to our witnesses who are here with us today. that iyou to know appreciate your service and on behalf of a grateful congress, we thank you. i thank you for your dedication to ensuring that millions of americans who do not have health insurance will be able to obtain quality affordable coverage going forward. this is an incredibly admirable goal. thank you for everything you are doing to make it a reality. unfortunately, not everyone in this room shares this very

important goal. republicans oppose the 2009 ande care act in voted against providing health insurance to millions of americans. over the past three years, they times tod more than 40 repeal parts or all of the law and eliminate health insurance for people across the country. since they failed in these repeal efforts, they block the request for full funding to implement the law. forces federal agencies to divert limited funds from other areas. republican governors refused to set up state exchanges forcing the federal government to bear more of the workload and to make

a political point against the affordable care act, republican governors refused federal funds to expand their medicaid programs to provide medical care for the poor increasing the burden on their own state hospitals. of the mostis one inexplicable actions i've ever witnessed from elected representatives against around people. these are the people who elected neighbors, family members, the grocer, the mortician. after all of these efforts, house republicans shut down the entire federal government for three weeks in october. three weeks. they shut down the government. default on our a national debt unless we repealed the affordable care act.

again, this effort failed. now they are attempting to use the congressional oversight process to scare americans away once againbsite by making unsupported assertions about the risks to their personal medical information. let me be clear. the centers for medicare and and its services contractors failed to fully deliver what they were supposed to deliver and congressional oversight of those failures is absolutely warranted. but nobody in this room -- nobody in this country -- believe that republicans want to fix the website. for the past three years, the number one priority of the website -- of congressional republicans has to

been to bring down this law and that goal, ladies and gentlemen, has not changed. today, they complain that their constituents are waiting too long on the healthcare website but is up for insurance there a solution to fix the website? no. it is to repeal the affordable care act and eliminate health insurance for millions of americans. would reduce waiting times on the website, it would increase waiting times in our nation's emergency room's pyramid --. . instead of working in a bipartisan manner, he politicizes the issue by repeatedly making unfounded allegations.

in my opinion, these statements have impaired the committee's credibility. for example, on october 22, he went on national television and accuse the white house of thering cms to disable anonymous shopper function for political reasons to avoid "sticker shock." that allegation is totally wrong. we have now reviewed documents and interviewed cms officials who made that decision. it was based on the contractor's work and not on a white house political director is. , a press release was issued with this glaring in- line quote. "health care.gov could only

handle 1100 users the day before launch." this claim is wrong. you apparently baser allegations on misinterpretations of documents we received which relate to a sample testing environment. i believe the witnesses will be expounding upon that today. all was yourg of allegation against one of our witnesses today, todd park. the chief technology officer of the united states of america. you went on national television and accused him of engaging in "a pattern of interference and false statements." mr. park is widely respected by the technology community as an honest and upstanding professional.

in my opinion, your accusations withrated his reputation absolutely no legitimate basis. as i've said in my letter to you on monday, i believe your statement crossed a line and i think you owe mr. park an apology, not a subpoena. approach of this is that we may miss an opportunity to do some very good work. doneommittee has significant, substantive, and bipartisan work on federal i.t. reform. i applaud you for your leadership in that. --o back to the word bipartisan. we join in to do what this committee is supposed to do. facts, seek the

truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and bring about reform. under the leadership of you and informationic technology expert, mr. mcconnell he of virginia, last march we passed the federal information technology reform act that would of agencyhe authority cio's and provide them with budget authority over federal i.t. programs including hiring. we did that together. we did that in a bipartisan way. we put politics aside, rolled up our sleeves, and we worked together to construct of lee address these challenges. i hope that is what today's hearing is all about. again, i think our witnesses, who i know are working very hard, to achieve these goals. with that, i yield act.

tomembers have seven days submit opening statements and other extraneous materials. i now ask that my entire opening statement be placed in the record, without objection so ordered. i asked about the letter dated to i will now go to our panel of witnesses. we welcome them. the director of information technology issues of the government accountability office. of the office of information services and centers for medicare and medicaid , and deputy chief affirmation officer at cms. mr. frank bateman is the chief information